Determined to understand this cult of heterosexual rage a little better, I approached a vaguely pretty but plain-looking 20-something girl holding a "Fag Sin" sign. Since she didn't respond to my questions about her fixation with gays, I tried to get her attention by asking her out for a nightcap.

Visibly startled at my proposal, the girl fought back a smile before falling back into line. "I do not drink alcohol and why would I want to go out with some pervert anyway?" she said with disgust. A few feet behind the girl, a lunky, middle-aged guy started stomping on an American flag while screaming to no one in particular, "See this flag? It's a fag flag. It's a faggot flag!"

Trying to ignore the flag-stomper, I assured the girl, "We don't have to drink alcohol. I'll get you a Shirley Temple if you want."

"But that would lead to fornication!" she snapped, seemingly shocked at my ignorance of the aphrodisiac powers of a Shirley Temple.

I cut our Colonial-era courtship ritual short and strode into the Rose Bowl, excited as a Jew at a Christian mega-revival could be.

November 27, 2004

This is an old link but I've haven't been on top of stuff recently. It seems that the brilliant minds that brought you Iraq now want to get the hell out:

Growing number of national security specialists who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein are moving to a position unthinkable even a few months ago: that the large US military presence is impeding stability as much as contributing to it and that the United States should begin major reductions in troops beginning early next year.

So when liberals want to get the hell out they are wimps who want Saddam to be back in charge, but what is it when conservatives do it? A really tough cut and run? The worlds most macho bug-out? Bush is going to hold elections in Iraq on Jan 30, call them a monumental success, freedom is on the march, and then pull the troops out. Just watch:

Said Ken Adelman, a member of the Defense Policy Board who predicted the Iraq war would be a "cakewalk": "If there is a [stable] Iraqi government after January you can withdraw. I would be OK with that."

If U.S. troops leave Iraq too soon, the country will simply fall apart. The Kurdish areas in the north may muddle along, unless Turkey intervenes to protect the Turkman minority or to block the emergence of a Kurdish state. The Shiite areas in the south might establish an Iranian-backed theocratic statelet that would establish order. But the middle of the country would erupt in bloody civil war and turn into something like Somalia.

What would that mean? If Iraq were to sink to Somalia-level child mortality rates, one result by my calculation would be 203,000 children dying each year. If Iraq were to have maternal mortality rates as bad as Somalia's, that would be 9,900 Iraqi women dying each year in childbirth.

November 22, 2004

My car is in the shop, I've got too much work to enjoy Thanksgiving break and I've got to get through this day with three hours of sleep. I don't think that I should be the only one in a crappy mood. There I give you This Modern World to make you feel bad and Iraq'D to make you feel worse. How about Iraq casualties? Why don't we just get out? Fast-forwarding through commercials being made illegal?

November 21, 2004

Here is something to piss everybody off regardless of political affiliation. Via the stellar Talking Points it appears that an attempt was made to insert a special provision into the big end of the year tax bill which allows the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their staff to review any American's tax return with no restrictions whatsoever. That means these members of Congress can read anybody's tax returns any time they want to. Some Dems caught the measure and it was quickly dropped. This kind of crap goes on all the time. Congress has to pass a budget, so people try and put all kinds of crap in at the last minute. The villain in this case is one Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma. The good news is that he was foiled. But Talking Points will make some people squirm before this is dropped.

November 19, 2004

Archie Gates: What's the most important thing in life?
Troy Barlow: Respect.
Archie Gates: Too dependent on other people.
Conrad Vig: What, love?
Archie Gates: A little Disneyland, isn't it?
Chief Elgin: God's will.
Archie Gates: Close.
Troy Barlow: What is it then?
Archie Gates: Necessity.
Troy Barlow: As in?
Archie Gates: As in people do what is most necessary to them at any given moment.

When you look at a President's agenda it's important to remember necessity. The Clinton Presidential Library opening and the discussion of his Presidency has got me thinking about how Bush part 2 is going to play out. I believe you can divide any Presidency into two parts, both driven by necessity. The first term is all about getting a second term, cause if the number one priority of a President isn't reelection, then it doesn't matter what priority number two is. Once you get that second term, necessity changes. Now it's all about legacy, history, lasting changes to the country and seeing if they have any room on Mt. Rushmore. This is what Bush and his people are thinking about now. It's the new Necessity.

My own take is that things do not look good for the W page in the history books. The lead entry will have to be Iraq and the second paragraph, the part where it ends, doesn't seem likely. Casualties have spiked massively, but even worse, there doesn't seem to be any way for us to leave:

There's nothing on the drawing boards, in fact, to suggest Iraq can defend its freedom if our servicemen and women come home. Not now, not next year, and possibly not for generations to come. Ever since the old Iraqi Army was dissolved by the Americans last year, the country has been dependent on the United States for its national defense.
...
So it's no wonder that many Iraqis including the majority of the insurgents, who still see themselves as fighting foreign invaders simply don't believe the American administration's spin about pulling out of Iraq sometime soon. Iraq's neighbors don't believe that either. And neither should anyone else.

That's Christopher Dickey in Newsweek. Six years of bloody insurgency will eat up a lot of space in the Bush II Presidential Library. On the domestic side they seem to be contemplating some monumentally bad tax policies, but the budget deficient will hamper any attempt to mess with taxes or Social Security. For legacy it's all about Iraq from here to 2008. Iraq is necessity.

November 18, 2004

Rather than dwell on the bad stuff, let's focus on the positive. New U2 album is coming. Rolling Stone is saying good things:

This is grandiose music from grandiose men, sweatlessly confident in the execution of their duties. Hardly any of the eleven songs break the five-minute mark or stray from the punchy formula of All That You Can't Leave Behind. They've gotten over their midcareer anxiety about whether they're cool enough. Now, they just hand it to the Edge and let it rip.

November 17, 2004

As we learn who Bush is going to have in his cabinet for the (sigh) next four years, keep in mind that the #1 canidates were the people who brought you the last four years. The people who are coming next are the second string people who didn't make the cut last time. Really makes you feel good, don't it?

But it's time blue America realized it controls more than just the nation's output of immoral culture, abortions on demand, and gay weddings. It also controls the purse strings. And that suggests a strategy.

For blue staters, it's one thing to watch red states pick the President and set national policy on everything from Iraq to judges. But to pay them lavishly for the pleasure suggests that blues aren't just losers, they're stupid losers. You can feel blue anger rising. You reds don't like taxes? Okay, stop taking mine! You can have your states' rights too and we'll start by cutting your allowance!

November 16, 2004

"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources."

Secretary of State Colin Powell before the U.N. Security Council outlining the rationale for the Iraq war.

November 15, 2004

Colin and some other people who don't matter have resigned. I really mean it when I say that the others don't matter. The Education secretary doesn't create the administration's education policy, that comes from the White House staff. But SecState does matter. The smart betting seems to be on Condi Rice. I'm not quiet sure how she would do as SecState. Iran is a problem, North Korea is a big problem, and you may have heard of a country called Iraq. Not to mention Weneverheardofitbutitsadamnbigproblemstan. I don't know how poor Condi will deal, but past history doesn't make me optimistic.

November 14, 2004

Sixty-one US soldiers have died since election day. If that seems like a lot, it is. It's the worst daily rate of casualties since the uprising last April. The much covered attack on Falluja was delayed until after election day so these casualties, which everyone knew were coming, wouldn't hurt Bush at the polls. What really drives liberals nuts is that Bush is getting away with it. He never pays. Soldiers Pay.

Oh, and while we are still talking Red States and Blues States, here is a stat for your consideration:

45.3% of the Iraq War dead are from Kerry States
53.0% are from Bush States

20 soldiers (1.7%) are from Puerto Rico or other US territories and died for a nation where they can't vote for President.

November 13, 2004

Craigorian Chant is in need of an entourage. Please read this helpful guide provided by Slate and then apply for the position as c_baracco@yahoo.com.

Seriously though, Craigorian Chant is in the market for contributors and analysis. The end of the election season makes quick and easy posts harder to come up with. As I do need to make it out of this town with a MA under one arm and still maintain the high quality posts you my loyal reader have come to expect. Please send in any tips, good news stories, interesting web sites, either my e-mail or in the comments section. Original work, either reporter or analysis will be rewarded with the highest honor the Chant can now grant: A Title. Join such notables as Senior Mid-West correspondent Tyler (Recently transferred to the Craigorian Chant So Cal section), Chief of the UK Bureau Chris, Senior Copy Editor Laura and Basic Cable Analyst Jess. You too can join these honored ranks. Contribute today. For a Better America. And a Better Blog.

November 12, 2004

Pandagon has a good post up today about the real problem that Bush has:

The underlying issue, which is going to keep foiling our every foreign policy whim, is that foreign populations have begun to hate us. A lot. That means foreign governments can curry favor with their citizenry by standing up to us, by opposing us, by obstructing us and by fighting our priorities. Their incentives lead them to block our projects and ignore our criticisms, not the other way around. And if that remains the case, we're in real trouble.

America is going to have a hell of a time making anybody listen to us because there's a tremendous incentive for foreign leaders to cross us. After all, Democracy has already marched into many of these capitals, and these Presidents and Prime Ministers want the approval ratings. Proving that they won't back down to the hated Americans is one easy way to get them.

American foreign policy for the last 200 years has been to promote democracy in other nations. While we haven't been perfect, there are now a hell of a lot of democracies out there. In fact, the vast majority of the world's cultural, economic, and military resources are in the hands of democratically elected governments. That's why Bush being hated abroad is such a problem. Cooperating with Bush really hurts foreign leaders at home. Being against US foreign policy is a winning election issue almost everywhere these days. And elections are happening everywhere. That has real consequences that will cost the US soldiers, money and diplomatic capital. It makes every US foreign policy goal harder to reach and these goals are damn important.

November 11, 2004

In no way does "less nutty than John Ashcroft" make you a good pick. For a short background on why Alberto Gonzales is not the man you want safeguarding the civil liberties of the nation go here. For the long version go here. If the Senate Dems can get their act together after the late unfortunate events, they can really nail Gonzales on this stuff.

Today's must read is the Frank Rich in the NYTimes. The word of the day is values and Rich points out the obvious - Blue State values rule the culture, whatever the vote is:

The blue ascendancy is nearly as strong among Republicans as it is among Democrats. Those whose "moral values" are invested in cultural heroes like the accused loofah fetishist Bill O'Reilly and the self-gratifying drug consumer Rush Limbaugh are surely joking when they turn apoplectic over MTV. William Bennett's name is now as synonymous with Las Vegas as silicone. The Democrats' Ashton Kutcher is trumped by the Republicans' Britney Spears. Excess and vulgarity, as always, enjoy a vast, bipartisan constituency, and in a democracy no political party will ever stamp them out.

...

Values," Mr. Frank writes, "always take a backseat to the needs of money once the elections are won." Under this perennial "trick," as he calls it, Republican politicians promise to stop abortion and force the culture industry "to clean up its act" - until the votes are counted. Then they return to their higher priorities, like cutting capital gains and estate taxes. Mr. Murdoch and his fellow cultural barons - from Sumner Redstone, the Bush-endorsing C.E.O. of Viacom, to Richard Parsons, the Republican C.E.O. of Time Warner, to Jeffrey Immelt, the Bush-contributing C.E.O. of G.E. (NBC Universal) - are about to be rewarded not just with more tax breaks but also with deregulatory goodies increasing their power to market salacious entertainment. It's they, not Susan Sarandon and Bruce Springsteen, who actually set the cultural agenda Gary Bauer and company say they despise.

November 10, 2004

Ok, let all just put down our tin foil hats and our guns and move on to other topics. We have a new Attorney General, just in the manner that I was hoping for. The new guy is nothing to write home about, but I think we can safely call him “Less nutty than John Ashcroft.”

The much heralded assault on Fallujah is going down. There will be many headlines and plenty of fireballs but:

Guerilla force flees rather than stand and be slaughtered by better-armed foe. Who could have predicted that except every goddamn person on the face of the earth.

Politically, the insurgents have significantly advanced what could be called the Sunni persecution strategy: That is, to gather recruits, material, and political support for the insurgency by aggravating the sense among Sunnis that they have no future in the U.S.-sponsored political process. The only Sunni political party in the Allawi government has quit in protest and the largest Sunni religious organization has formally called for their adherents to boycott the January elections. One member of the Iraqi Islamic Party who refused to resign his position--and who has since been renounced by the party--explained his decision: "It will be a big mistake not to have the Sunnis' participation in the election. We would have problems for decades to come."

I would like to address Tyler's point. The exit poll graphs that I posted are not evidence that the election was hacked. I do not really believe that the election was stolen through voter fraud. It most likely was not. I would just like to remind people of the problems with current state of electronic voting, which are the fact that it is paperless and the appearance of impropriety.

The fact that most electronic machines are paperless means that they cannot be audited and recounts cannot be undertaken. This is a problem because:

The software that underlies them is a "trade secret" which cannot be inspected for flaws in an open fashion (for instance by academic computer scientists).

There are flaws in the software (for instance, in Florida the machines counted votes to 32,000 and then started counting backwards on a few ballot initiatives).

There are flaws in the engineering of the machines that make them susceptible to hacking (in particular they run an insecure setup with Microsoft Access that has been demonstrated as hackable and alterable to hide modifications).

Inaccurate vote totals lead to suspicion (on a number of occasions the vote totals have exceeded the total number of registered voters in an area, while this may be a glitch with voter logs or the computer assigning voters to the wrong county, it does lead to suspicion).

The appearance of impropriety among the companies that manufacture the voting machines undermines confidence in the results. Here is a short list:

Senator Chuck Hagel won a landslide victory in Nebraska. His campaign treasurer had been president of ES&S, the voting equipment manufacturer for Nebraska, and Hagel had an investment of $1-$5 million in his company, which owned 25% of ES&S.

Diebold's CEO said that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President".

Diebold claimed that it cannot manufacture voting machine that produced a paper receipt because of the danger of paper jams causing problems (Diebold manufactures most ATM machine in the USA). California is suing Diebold for false claims about its machines.

None of these points are evidence of anything. But they definitely don't inspire confidence that the results will be accurate, which is probably the most important factor in a democracy.

Here is the reasonable response from David Dill, a professor of computer science at Stanford:

Computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering. It is therefore crucial that voting equipment provide a voter-verifiable audit trail, by which we mean a permanent record of each vote that can be checked for accuracy by the voter before the vote is submitted, and is difficult or impossible to alter after it has been checked. Many of the electronic voting machines being purchased do not satisfy this requirement. Voting machines should not be purchased or used unless they provide a voter-verifiable audit trail; when such machines are already in use, they should be replaced or modified to provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. Providing a voter-verifiable audit trail should be one of the essential requirements for certification of new voting systems.

There would be not conspiracy theories if we simply provided every voter with a paper receipt which they would verify and drop into a voting box, and which could be recounted in case of a dispute.

November 9, 2004

Wow! A Left wing guy like Thom Hartmann said the election was hacked!?! I know he has nothing against, W., I mean he's only being doing liberal radio for 35 years. Come on the guy met the Dalai Lama! That right there has got to put him at least left of Green Peace.

Also, I highly doubt a publication (the blue lemur) which is supported by therawstory would in anyway try to be unbiased. They're a liberal answer to the Druge Report. Check it out. By the way, my dad is 17 years older than the combined age of the guys who run the site.

I typed Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked into Googleand all I saw was blogs and left wing websites. None of the big boys have said a thing and the election was a week ago. (Yeah ok, I'm setting myself up).

But still.....you know this is just fodder for consipracy theorists.......

Story via Abel, offical brother-in-law of Craigorian Chant. Check out his new blog Able Abel. Chris is not the only one to start thinking we were not beat on the up and up. I'm not there yet but keep the tips coming. We could still break this sucker open.

November 8, 2004

If there is one thing I am certain of as far as voting patterns go, it's that people in the big cities vote Donkey and those in small towns vote for the other guys. So, now I see in a couple of places that Bush lost ground in rural areas and small towns while gaining support overall:

Finally, his support was up by 10 points in urban areas and down by 2 points in rural communities, including a surprising 9 point decrease from residents of small towns. This goes against a whole bunch of conventional wisdom (including mine) about the growing urban/rural divide in America. If anything, it seems to have narrowed in this election.

...

Gallup's post-election poll seems to do some major damage to the rapidly emerging conventional wisdom about the 2004 election. According to Gallup, George W. Bush improved his share among suburban voters (51 percent in 2000, 54 percent in 2004) and among urban voters (35 percent in 2000, 44 percent in 2004) while doing worse among rural voters (60 percent in 2000, down to 54 percent in 2004).

Why did this happen? Did Kerry killing that goose swing some small town folks? Any theories? I know for a fact that I have many readers in small town America. What do you think?

November 7, 2004

Alright, unless Chris can pull a Bob Woodward and actually come up with hard evidence about the massive electronic voting conspiracy, we are stuck with Bush for the next four years. What to expect? No more wars. What we have is bad enough. Bush simply does not have the troops to do anything else. The election had put a lid on news from Iraq, but with a major assault due to hit any day and elections due in January; Iraq is the issue the Bushies need to deal with. No security in Iraq means no free and fair elections. Every month we stay brings more dead US soldiers. But if we pull out the Allawi government falls in a week. If we don't form a democratic government, then not one stated goal of the invasion of Iraq will be met. The real worry is that, with the entire US military tied down, what happens when the next crisis with either with Iran, North Korea or some country we haven't heard of yet. At that point my mother can resume worrying about the draft.

Domestically, stuff to worry about includes the Supreme Court and the budget. The real worry is not over replacing Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer. Bush replaces a conservative with a conservative; there will be a fight but not train wreck as the court stays 5-4. If O’Connor or one of the liberals needs to be replaced and Bush puts up a conservative, watch out. That puts Roe and a bunch of other stuff in real jeopardy so we are talking Armageddon in the Senate.

Finally, I see little being done about the massive budget deficit. Cutting taxes is often cited as one of Bush's big domestic achievements, but getting Congress to cut taxes is as easy as giving away shots of Higuera at midnight. What is hard is to switch from a budget that looks more and more like Argentina. Republicans are supposed to be grumpy old men who pinch pennies. Bush sure isn’t.

November 3, 2004

Been looking at the numbers and it looks like just a lot more conservatives showed up to vote. According to TNR:

Not only did Kerry win by an 86-13 margin among self-described liberals, he also won by a 55-45 margin among self-described moderates. So how'd Bush pull it off? He won 84-15 among self-described conservatives, and, more importantly, he made sure conservatives comprised a much bigger chunk of the electorate than they did in 2000. (Conservatives comprised about 34 percent of the electorate yesterday, versus 29 percent in 2000--a huge shift, raw numbers-wise.)

Kerry did just fine amoung everybody he should have to win, but I think the Karl Rove stratigery of getting conservatives fired up really did work. It fired up liberals too, it just fired up conservatives more. Turnout overall went up 20% across the board from 2000. Remember we are only talking about a few % points here. No need to move to Canada, even if the idea is tempting. I think that if Bush tries to push hard to the right (and I think he will) he is going to hit a wall.

Other notes - Man were the exit polls ever wronge. The going theory is that pissed off Democrates voted early and messed up the numbers.

Everyone remember where you are and how you feel. Now think about how you would have felt had it gone the other way. Remember this feeling for next time. There will be a next time. The country has not gotten behind Bush. The fifty-fifty nation broke 51-49 yesterday, but the next flip of the coin could be different. Stay involved, keep reading the Chant and remember how you felt this day.

Ten of my fellow classmates and I gathered at one of our apartments last night for an election party and boy were they all pissed around mid-night! We settled on Pete to bring home the results to us, but mainly because the TV we were watching from only had 5 channels and that one came in the best. I thought he did a good job though.

Well I must say I was surprised with the outcome of the Presidential race. Perhaps I shouldn't have relied so much on this, but I figured Bush's number was up anyway. Then I log onto CNN and see this. What!?! Kerry's conceeding? I thought Edwards was going to fly out to Ohio with 40 lawyers and make sure all the provisional votes were counted, thus dragging this thing out for another month. I guees he thought it would be best for the country to not do that. And may I say, good move.

The one thing that surprised me was how quickly Florida went to Bush. When I saw that I thought....oooo, looks like Bush could pull it out. Then the Ohio votes started comming with 91% of precincts reporting....95, 98 showing Bush's lead over Kerry by at least 127,00. Late last night with about 99% of Ohio precincts reporting, CNN had Bush ahead by more than 147,000 votes. Then when JE went on stage in Boston for that 45 second speech, I said yep its over. They essentially conceeded Ohio (Even though CNN and ABC just wouldn't give it to Bush, there were being so carefull, but can you blame them?).

According to the polls going into the last week, it appeared Kerry had made his case (although some think he did not). From what I read it was clear that Kerry won at least two out of the three debates (if not all three) with Bush. I did see their second one, and in my opinion, Kerry bettered W. in that one. I figured that America had seen that W. made some pretty bad mistakes in Iraq, had come up short in the debates, and had mis-manage the entire country as a whole. With all of this Kerry should have won by at least 50 electoral votes.

However, one of the Ohio newspapers that endorsed W. made a good point: Bush and Kerry are not the best choices for President, but let Bush finish the job he started. I guess America didn't want a transition in the middle of the war on terroism. It could have sent a bad message to certain countries that we couldn't finish the job and we did not think the eleminating these guys was important. Thats the primary reason I think Bush is still President. Look at how many mistakes he has made, how many dumb things he has said and how many people hate him (I don't need a link for that one....you all know). Yet he still wins? Hmmmmm.

It is very surprising Kerry could not convince the country to elect him especially considering the above. Man, not only did he not win the electoral vote, but Bush won a majority this time!

Well like him or not Bush is our guy for the next four years.

Mmmmmmm tax cuts......

PS

In a completely unrelated topic, if you want to know some things about transportation data, click here. I got a B+ on it.

November 2, 2004

Things are not looking good. Bush is up by 3 million popular votes nationwide. I think that Kerry will come up as more California votes come in. The EC does not look good. Fox and NBC have called Ohio for Bush which puts him at 269; one short of victory. CNN and the AP have not called Ohio. I think only Ohio can save Kerry at this point and I don't think Kerry can win Ohio tonight. We could be in recount land here. As final note, I really think that Wolf Blizer is a funny name for a grown man.

I braved long lines, GOP poll watchers, and a horde of lawyers to vote this morning. I bravely sorted through no less than 20 Statewide and local propositions. I am very worried I picked the wrong guy for Harbor Commissioner. I am worried that I don't know what the Harbor Commission does. I was lucky to have escaped with my life much less have voted at all. Actually in sleepy California the polling place was not crowded and there wasn't a lawyer to be seen. They had to check three different lists to find me but I got to vote just fine. I am totally serious about the massive number of ballot measures and the Harbor Commission.

The first votes are on the AP now. It's just Indiana and Kentucky so I would not worry.

Tiiiiime is on my side yes it is...Tiiiiime is on my side. The early exits have filled me with false hope.

I must now be very clear:

Get your ass to polls! Right Now! Move! If you live in Kentucky or Indiana it's already too late! Less than five hours left in California! Move!

By the way, if you haven't mailed your absentee ballot in you can still turn it in directly to your polling place. If you are out of town and didn't mail in your absentee ballot then good job, idiot! You may have just cost us the election.

What a fun time to be alive. The direction of the country, the fate of the world, everything is at stake; and no one, and I mean no one, knows what's going to happen. I have a ton of work to do and nothing is getting done. I'm either going to be voting, getting others to to go vote, or just worrying about the race. I did link to some stuff to offer prospective but none of it took. I'm like a kid before x-mas with the added buzz of not knowing if I'm getting the red rider BB gun or the biggest lump of coal in the history of the Republic. The direction of the country is in the balance. Somebody out there is the little nudge that will change everything. Is it you?

November 1, 2004

Well it's the last day. These are desperate times. Things are getting nasty in Ohio. Are things getting weird where you are? Send in your stories. Personally, I don't think this election will be the razor sharp finish everyone seems to be expecting. This sucker is going to break for one guy or the other, and if it was going to break for Bush it would have happened by now. Forget CSI, Tuesday night will have the best TV drama of the year. My advice is to look at what States get quick calls after the polls close on the East Cost. If New Hampshire goes fast for Kerry, feel good, if it goes fast for Bush, feel bad. Also watch Pennsylvania and then Iowa and Wisconsin when polls close in central time. My guest is no network is going to call either Florida or Ohio till all the polls close in the lower 48. But if those states get called early somebody is winning big or some network is going to wear an egg or two. Slate and others will break the embargo on early exit polls so we could get some results much earlier in the day. Stay tuned sports fans.

Time is up and there is nowhere I would not link in order to encourage you to vote.

This is the time to stand up and be counted. From the beginning of time old men have started wars and young men have finished them. But here, in this time and this place we get to pick the old men. We can change the direction of the county. It will not be done with marches, with bombs or street theater. Go vote, go help and count on everyone else to do the same. Trust that I will do my part and I will trust you to do yours.